We appreciate the enormous support that our ABestWeb community has experienced over the many years it has served its members and sponsors. We have decided to exit this business and have placed the property up for sale and we are actively entertaining interest.

In the meantime, community members will be able to read but not post to ABestWeb beginning on Jan. 18.

We want to thank you for your numerous contributions and your ongoing support. If you have any questions, please let us know.

What's the deal with the Kids Direct window that pops up offering viisitors 10% off if they "Click Here for 10% Off!" on their order? Hey, 10% off on expensive items is quite a nifty sum - but where does it leave the poor affiliate, the dumb sucker who sent the visitor in the first place, if they click?

>>Did you confirm the popup actually overwrites the referring aff's cookie?
>>What is the best way to do this?

That's why I 'm asking. Aside from the fact that it's getting more and more annoying being bothered with sales pitch popups at more and more sites, I'd also like to know how to find out or confirm, without having to make a test purchase for things I've got no use for.

Challenge the merchant's AM to clarify if the popup is just a non cookie setting app or a 3rd party commissioned service getting assigned an affiliate ID#. Once they committed to the truth ...or lying to the traffic source ...test the app. Alternately Ask Ms. B to evaluated it, or request a complete audit by the merchants network as a referral click overwrite is definitely against the network TOS.

Webmaster's... Mike and Charlie

"What have you done today to put real value into a referral click...from a shoppers viewpoint!"

Pop up I'm seeing is to join their newsletter and then you also get 10% your first order.

There's nothing in the pop up itself or clicking the 'more info' on the pop to make me think they are overwriting affiliate tracking with the pop up itself. If you look at the URL on their site you will see "partner=18" if it's a CJ click thru. that carried all the way to the shopping cart even with the pop or clicking on it. The Your Kids Direct cookie maintained CJ reference. Even closing out the browser and returning to the site maintained the "partner=18".

I didin't join their newsletter to see if clicking from it for the 10% discount would do anything or not to the cookie. But you can do that if you want. Be sure you have CJ tracking set first. Then look to see if the 'partner=18' is maintained or not. If it isn't that doesn't necessarily mean they are overwriting, but it indicates further investigation may be warranted.

I don't personally know what Your Kids Direct terms are or their program specifics.

On Lillian Vernon the live person chat window will not steal your sale if the customer just clicks and even chats. They only get credit if the customer chooses to have them place their order for them, which means they will not acually be placing the order through our shopping cart. At least that is how it works on our site.

I think it's up to the affiliate manager to even the playing field. If your company provides the Live person chat rep. with 10% off there order, AM's should provide their affiliates with the tools they need to sell to their customers too.

As for pop-up's that don't go away, I think that should be made known to the merchant. Most of the time we are not aware that something is not working correctly until someone brings it to our attention.

Lillian Vernon never shares any customer information. The customer is given the choice to do that for themselves. If they deciede not to, then they check out normally. Again if the customer comes through an affiliate link the pop-up will not come up.

Lillian Vernon never shares any customer information. The customer is given the choice to do that for themselves. If they deciede not to, then they check out normally. Again if the customer comes through an affiliate link the pop-up will not come up.

Then put a huge notice on each page that the LiveHelp is operated by a 3rd party not bound by your privacy policy. Expert affiliates can't even decern if that sales hawking app isn't operated by LV...how can a shopper know this??

Webmaster's... Mike and Charlie

"What have you done today to put real value into a referral click...from a shoppers viewpoint!"

Then put a huge notice on each page that the LiveHelp is operated by a 3rd party not bound by your privacy policy. Expert affiliates can't even decern if that sales hawking app isn't operated by LV...how can a shopper know this??

That is totally the truth , and what is being done by LV is indefensible. But LV is a different issue. What LV has done has effectively defrauded their affiliates by promising a 15 day return cookie, yet eliminating any chance of even a 10 second return by the back button, with their customers being abducted and sabotaged by that window IMMEDIATELY upon customers return. Either the customer turns down the high pressure LiveSales window and orders immediately first visit (not the case, more order after 10 days, historically) or affiliate commissions are non-existent altogether.

Back on topic for THIS thread though, which is thankfully not about LV's unfortunate tactics, at YourKidsDirect the window was not showing up when I've been checking past few days. You have to literally hunt for the 800 number, it's not easily findable, and it's a 3rd party call center.

There is no number direct to the company, but I will email the affiliate manage to establish communications, and in going back this week I didn't see any leaks at all now that the window offering 10% off is not turning up any more.

Well, I hadn't updated the pages for a while so I haven't checked the site, in fact I forgot all about it. But I just checked the clickthrough numbers (with no sales) so I went to the site to look and sure enough, the window is back.

This post of Andy's is what got me wondering in the first place, I never would have given it a thought otherwise

Once your visitor buys something or enters their email at the merchants site, your cookie days are as good as over.

I have been getting sales for merchants on the same pages as their links are all along, and in fact had a few sales from them in July, but no more. So it's definitely time to check out why. I'll sign up for that email with the 10% off and check this out the best I can.

Added:
So far so good. After signup you get taken right to a page with the coupon code to enter when ordering, and it's only good ordering through the cart (on orders of $100 or more) - no 10% off for email or phone orders.

That's good to hear. Did you make a purchase? If so, please let us know if you get proper credit for it. It's nice to hear merchant success stories, especially when it's obvious they've considered their responsibilities to their affiliates.

That's good to hear. Did you make a purchase? If so, please let us know if you get proper credit for it. It's nice to hear merchant success stories, especially when it's obvious they've considered their responsibilities to their affiliates.

Andy

I'll second that.....

Webmaster's... Mike and Charlie

"What have you done today to put real value into a referral click...from a shoppers viewpoint!"